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Holmes County
July 3, 196U
Dear Parents,
Thanks for the letter. The part about Chicago SNCC will be forwarded to Greenwood for the
attention of the Project leaders. The last thing we need is to get people mad for no good
reason, as for being mesmerized, there's no chance of it. The Mississippi leaders know
better. Mesmerized people are stupid, and stupid people come to bad ends around here. We
are not, for example, going to try to integrate anything even though the Rights Bill would
seem to call for such demonstrations. In Mississippi, however, they are too dangerous and
hinder, rather than help the main object, which is to get the vote.
So far we've had no trouble but things happen to remind one that it really is Mississippi.
For example, when we got off the bus at Greenwood, Miss, the bus depot was being watched
by four squad cars, and during our wait at Greenwood for transportation out to Holmes County,
the cops went by about every 10 minutes. The main thing though is not the cops but the stony
stares that integrated groups get from the local whites as they sit in their parked cars
across the street from where one is working or motor slowly by.
In Holmes County, though, they haven t done much besides look and grumble. The local deputy
sheriff told a man from the Justice Department (Yes, Big Brother is watching) that as far as
he was concerned we should get out of town before dawn, but finally agreed to protect us, which
turned out to mean shining searchlights into the bedroom of our host families. The reason they
don't do more is the character of the neighborhood! Since the Negroes own their own land,
economic pressure doesn't work, and any other kind is met the same way farmers everywhere meet
it. The Movement may be non-violent, but the people here are by no means so when it comes
to protecting their families and property. One local man was bombed last year-, but he ceme out
shooting, wounded at least one of his attackers, and hasn't been bothered since. The Community
Center is hidden down a country road controlled at both ends by men friendly to the movement,
attacker might get in, but he'd have little chance of getting out.
The people have been wonderful. The welcome has been so warm that I've been at loose ends
figuring out ways of being worth it. For our community center we've been given an old house
until some people arrive from California to put up a new one with men and money they raised
out there. The place is far from being a shack but it's been vacant for two years, which meant
that it had to be cleaned, windows had to be fixed, and rotten beams replaced. We 've had so
many willing workers that I've been hard-pressed to keep them busy. So far I've got glass in
most of the windows, fixedup the back porch,and built some bookshelves, and have begun to
sort the room full of books, mostly junk but some valuable, which we found on our arrival.
We've gotten enough done to risk an open house at a July k picnic which the neighborhood is
having to celebrate the passage of the Civil Sights bill.
It's pioneer country. Mileston was homesteaded in 1939 after the government took over the
land from bankrupt farmers and plantation owners. The people are poor, not poverty-stricken.
They've got machinery instead of mules, but have not enough nor enough land, to have a lot of
cash, and the whites are doing their beet to prevent the Negroes from getting enough. Mortgages, for example, are simply too risky, since they'll be foreclosed on the slightest pretext.
One farmer here, very active in the Movement, has got five tractors, a combine, a cotton
picker, and 200 acres, but the amount of work and brains that went into that is simply unbelievable. He couldn't buy his machinery locally, because no one wanted to help a Negro get
ahead, so he went to a town kO miles away. This is beginning to change, since he's got a
reputation for paying his bills and money talks even here, but in Illinois, he'd own half
a county by now. (not my host family)
My address for now is c/o Don Wilson, Bt. 2, Tchula, Miss. I hope to get a story off to the
Journal-Times tomorrow, but I'm too busy to be able to write often.
Talk back to Chicago SNCC all you want, but don't give up on the movement, de're wanted and
needed here, and I think we can do some good.
GENE

Eugene Nelson, a Yale student from Evanston, Illinois, wrote his parents while he was training for Freedom Summer in Oxford, Ohio, and while he was working at the community center in Mileston, Mississippi, during that summer. This folder consists of his letters and an outline, perhaps, of speeches he gave in Evanston when he returned home.

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

Holmes County
July 3, 196U
Dear Parents,
Thanks for the letter. The part about Chicago SNCC will be forwarded to Greenwood for the
attention of the Project leaders. The last thing we need is to get people mad for no good
reason, as for being mesmerized, there's no chance of it. The Mississippi leaders know
better. Mesmerized people are stupid, and stupid people come to bad ends around here. We
are not, for example, going to try to integrate anything even though the Rights Bill would
seem to call for such demonstrations. In Mississippi, however, they are too dangerous and
hinder, rather than help the main object, which is to get the vote.
So far we've had no trouble but things happen to remind one that it really is Mississippi.
For example, when we got off the bus at Greenwood, Miss, the bus depot was being watched
by four squad cars, and during our wait at Greenwood for transportation out to Holmes County,
the cops went by about every 10 minutes. The main thing though is not the cops but the stony
stares that integrated groups get from the local whites as they sit in their parked cars
across the street from where one is working or motor slowly by.
In Holmes County, though, they haven t done much besides look and grumble. The local deputy
sheriff told a man from the Justice Department (Yes, Big Brother is watching) that as far as
he was concerned we should get out of town before dawn, but finally agreed to protect us, which
turned out to mean shining searchlights into the bedroom of our host families. The reason they
don't do more is the character of the neighborhood! Since the Negroes own their own land,
economic pressure doesn't work, and any other kind is met the same way farmers everywhere meet
it. The Movement may be non-violent, but the people here are by no means so when it comes
to protecting their families and property. One local man was bombed last year-, but he ceme out
shooting, wounded at least one of his attackers, and hasn't been bothered since. The Community
Center is hidden down a country road controlled at both ends by men friendly to the movement,
attacker might get in, but he'd have little chance of getting out.
The people have been wonderful. The welcome has been so warm that I've been at loose ends
figuring out ways of being worth it. For our community center we've been given an old house
until some people arrive from California to put up a new one with men and money they raised
out there. The place is far from being a shack but it's been vacant for two years, which meant
that it had to be cleaned, windows had to be fixed, and rotten beams replaced. We 've had so
many willing workers that I've been hard-pressed to keep them busy. So far I've got glass in
most of the windows, fixedup the back porch,and built some bookshelves, and have begun to
sort the room full of books, mostly junk but some valuable, which we found on our arrival.
We've gotten enough done to risk an open house at a July k picnic which the neighborhood is
having to celebrate the passage of the Civil Sights bill.
It's pioneer country. Mileston was homesteaded in 1939 after the government took over the
land from bankrupt farmers and plantation owners. The people are poor, not poverty-stricken.
They've got machinery instead of mules, but have not enough nor enough land, to have a lot of
cash, and the whites are doing their beet to prevent the Negroes from getting enough. Mortgages, for example, are simply too risky, since they'll be foreclosed on the slightest pretext.
One farmer here, very active in the Movement, has got five tractors, a combine, a cotton
picker, and 200 acres, but the amount of work and brains that went into that is simply unbelievable. He couldn't buy his machinery locally, because no one wanted to help a Negro get
ahead, so he went to a town kO miles away. This is beginning to change, since he's got a
reputation for paying his bills and money talks even here, but in Illinois, he'd own half
a county by now. (not my host family)
My address for now is c/o Don Wilson, Bt. 2, Tchula, Miss. I hope to get a story off to the
Journal-Times tomorrow, but I'm too busy to be able to write often.
Talk back to Chicago SNCC all you want, but don't give up on the movement, de're wanted and
needed here, and I think we can do some good.
GENE

Language

English

Source

Eugene Nelson letters, 1964; Archives Main Stacks, SC888;

Publisher-Electronic

Wisconsin Historical Society

Publication Date-Electronic

2013

Rights

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

June 26, 1964 letter from Eugene Nelson to his parents concerning the murder of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael H. Schwerner, Nelson's upcoming SNCC project in Mileston, and Nelson's impression of the SNCC